Racing News: March 6 Morning Report

Alysia Montaño, new mom and champion; Lagat and Kastor at Carlsbad.

How Alysia Montaño Won U.S. Title Six Months After ChildbirthMontaño drew more attention for running a USATF Championships 800-meter heat last June while 34 weeks pregnant than she had for being an Olympian or winning five U.S. outdoor titles. Last Sunday, six months after giving birth to her daughter, Linnea, Montaño became the USATF Indoor 600-meter champion. Her progress was quicker than she expected, and she was cleared to exercise five days after giving birth. Montaño gives credit to her “teammate,” Linnea, for helping her have “a whole new perspective on what's important.” More

Bernard Lagat and Deena Kastor Headline 30th Carlsbad 5000 ...The 30th anniversary edition of the California road race that's been called the world's fastest 5K is on March 29. Kastor, the 25-time U.S. champion who set the existing American women’s 5K road record of 14:54 at Carlsbad in 2002, returns at age 42 and says she’s lowered her mileage and worked on her speed and is prepared “to run about 15:30” this time. Lagat, now 40, had apparently broken Marc Davis’ American 5K record of 13:24 at Carlsbad last year by running 13:19, but the record was voided because the course, when re-measured, turned out to be 13.5 feet short.

... And Lagat Will Do His First 10K Road RaceThe two-time Olympic medalist and multiple world champion is coming off an indoor season in which he set world masters records for the mile, two-mile, and 3000 meters. On May 10, he’ll enter the Great Manchester Run, billed as Europe’s largest 10K, with hopes of breaking Haile Gebrselassie’s masters road record of 28:00. “That is a really quick time but it is good to shoot at something,” Lagat said. More

Running With Teens Keeps a 45-Year-Old MasterfulBecky Sondag of Wyoming runs with the high school track and cross country runners she coaches or with her own daughter, a college freshman. All of that has helped Sondag remain one of the best 45–49 age group runners in the country. Her 2:59.26 at the Houston Marathon in January won her age group by 22 minutes. Sondag has run more than 30 marathons and says “no two are the same.” More

After Ebola Scare, North Korea Opens Marathon to ForeignersNorth Korea had permitted foreigners to run 26.2 miles in and around the capital, Pyongyang. But fears of the Ebola virus had led North Korean leaders to close the country’s borders in October. Now a company involved in North Korean tourism says the quarantine has been lifted and it has extended its deadline for marathon registration, Newsweek reports. April’s Pyongyang Marathon is about the only opportunity for visitors to move around North Korea without the constant presence of a tour guide. More

For a Collegian With No Colon, a 4:16 Mile Is a TriumphCollin Jarvis was a Pac-12 steeplechase champion for the University of California who was weakened by a bout of ulcerative colitis, which necessitated the removal of his colon, as Flotrack reports. Doctors told him that at best he might jog again slowly. But at the recent MPSF Indoor Championships, in his first race in two years, Jarvis clocked a 4:16 mile. And he says he sees “a whole new opportunity ahead of me.” More

Violence Causes Cancellation of Ultra Caballo BlancoThe 50-mile race, which is 300 miles from the Mexico-United States border, was inaugurated by the late Micah True and was depicted in Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run. But kidnappings and killings of police officials by a local drug cartel caused race organizers to call off the most recent edition of the race. Some runners, including international visitors, went ahead and ran anyway, and say they’d do it again. But the event’s co-director is thinking of switching the race site because “the canyons are just super dangerous right now.” More

Florida State Makes Clear that Coach Karen Harvey ResignedA university spokesperson confirmed that Harvey, the women’s cross country and distance coach at the school, had decided to leave FSU and had not been fired. She told her athletes of her departure on Monday, within days of the NCAA Indoor Championships. Harvey was one of the most high profile women’s coaches in the NCAA, with great success at the conference level but some disappointments at the NCAA Championships. More

Alexi Pappas Gets Bib No. 1 for Chicago’s Shamrock Shuffle 8KPappas, who ran at Dartmouth and the University of Oregon, paced a group trying for an Olympic Trials “A” standard at the Chicago Marathon last October but on March 29, she’ll be racing on her own behalf in the Shuffle 8K. As a pro in 2014, Pappas was fourth in the USA 15K in 50:06 and seventh at the Beach to Beacon 10K in Maine in 32:27.

Strava’s Heat Map Shows Where the Runners AreStrava’s Heat Map is one way to gauge the popularity of various running routes; it currently has data from 41.5 million runs. Places like New York City’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park show up prominently, of course, but the Heat Map can also be a guide to less obvious road or trail options, like Idaho’s City of Rocks National Reserve. More